The last 20 minutes of the MLS Cup has been better than anything I've watched of college FB all day.

The goalkeeper storyline. Unreal.

{inserts the Union forgot to put penalties on the practice schedule here}

Another solid all around effort for Arsenal and still top of the table.

There really should not be any surprise that Zack Steffen missed out. He has been horrible for Middlesbrough this season.

Can I be surprised Jordan Morris and Haji Wright made it over Ricardo Pepi and Jordan Pefok and Roldan over Tillman and LDLT? Though I guess surprised isn't the right word...

Luca is on there.

2014 we had 5 guys with over 70 caps.

This time we have 1, and he probably won't play unless Dest needs a late game breather and we're winning.

Yedlin is also the only holdover from 2014.

No idea how serious this is. Is a boycott a real possibility?

FIFA and Qatar 'rattled' as European World Cup boycott gathers pace | Euronews

Boycott of what?


Okay, yeah I suppose a few people might not watch because the ball is being kicked around in Qatar.

Hah, you are right. Misleading headlines

Sepp Blatter's statement on what Platini did feels like it should be getting more attention, but also let's be real once the games are on I'm not boycotting.

No, this is by no means serious. Once the ball starts rolling, all is forgotten.

Haven’t even played yet and guaranteed top of the table headed into the World Cup break. Thanks Brentford.

File under "Life comes at you fast"

Last week: Two goals against ManCity.

This week: https://twitter.com/guardian_sport/s...39407606153218

232 (alleged) breaches of betting rules.

TBH probably a good call.

FIFA should strip them from the tournament. Hard promises were not kept, taking away the alcohol from alcohol addicts isn't what Qatar bribed all those FIFA suits for.

One promise down, many more to go. By the time the final comes around, both teams will be obligated to participate in the 'Salah' or else.

Speaking of those FIFA suits, Austin Warner is a tiny step closer to a NY courtroom.

Ex-FIFA vice president Warner loses appeal against extradition from Trinidad | Reuters

May have missed this but didn't see this in MSM. Get a cheap burner if going.

In my overseas trip earlier this year, I also had to install some Covid tracking apps. I have to go and delete them.

Qatar 'requires' World Cup visitors to install state-sponsored 'spyware' on their phones | TechSpot

Meh. I have to believe given everything that we have heard about the Qatari government over the last ten years, if someone decided to go to the World Cup, they don't really care too much about being tracked by said government.

Anybody walking around with a cellphone with a facebook or google account on it already decided he doesn't care about his privacy or doesn't want to think about it. One more or less app that doesn't care about your privacy shouldn't bother them.

Qatar are not good

This shit with the Iranian goalie is dreadful.

I'll be boycotting. While I'm not a hardcore fan I would've been watching some of the games.

Worst case scenario for US v England.

England can relax the second half and get 6 subs, so plenty of rest for Englands top players.

I wonder if this may be the best possible time for a world cup for the top players. They're in the middle of the season and can mostly be in form, instead of exhausted from a full season.

More goals than most baseball postseason runs scored!

I'd almost forgotten how much I hate Alexi Lalas and here he is running his mouth for every game. A month of Alexi Lalas all the time. Bring back Mike Tirico.

Beautiful goal for the Dutch. Great cross

Really odd for Wales to leave Kieffer Moore out, especially seeing as CB is probably the US’ weakest position. That lineup doesn’t fill me with a ton of confidence, but with how bad Iran are looking 4 points might be enough so might be going a bit conservative? That’s all I’ve got.

Weird, no yellow card for the captains of the USA and Wales for wearing a political statement on their arm. The Dutch media is all over FIFA's treatments to book any captain wearing such a band and as a result our captain Virgil van Dijk didn't wear the anti discrimination band he wore before in Nations League matches. FIFA being FIFA. :sigh:

The Fox broadcast really needs some way to do replays

SI

Sounds like Qatar used what amounts to slave labor to get the stadiums, hotels, and everything else built for the World Cup.

What was the statement? I missed the beginning of the match and I did not see anything on a initial rewind.

The attendance for Senegal vs. Netherlands was announced as 41,721.

The official capacity of the Al Thumama Stadium stadium in Qatar is 40,000.

Here are some photos of the stands...#QatarWorldCup2022 pic.twitter.com/09jdf9TNTf

— Eurosport (@eurosport) November 21, 2022

I will admit that I haven't payed attention to the build-up on this WC, so when the started talking about Tim Ream I couldn't help but think "It couldn't be that Tim Ream? Isn't he old?" Yes it is, and yes he is. Good for him.

There was no statement at the beginning of the match.
A day before the Senegal - Netherlands match, FIFA told the KNVB (Dutch football association) the captain arm band that Van Dijk has worn in recent games as captain of Oranje is a political statement and would be punished with a yellow card at the start of every match he wears it. Yet the message "One Love" on the arm band is apparently more political than the "No discrimination" we're seeing today with the captains of Wales and the USA. Regardless that the message behind it is exactly that: no discrimination.
:rolleyes:

Never would have imagined our awful central defenders would be our downfall.

Is Gio dead?

Jordan Morris? WTF

Is Reyna hurt?

Knowing him, probably?

From what I saw (I was on Teams calls for most of the game), I thought Aaronson was excellent off the bench and Pulisic not good. It's hard watching this stuff - much prefer league play.

Not being an avid soccer follower, that was rough to watch. I don't think there's enough time remaining in the millennium to accurately compensate for the hours players from both teams spent on the ground writhing in anticipation of a draw.

Maybe it's best to tune out until the semifinals or something. As for the protests, blame FIFA. It's Qatar. They don't play by western rules. What exactly did people expect and why exactly does it matter when we're watching to see soccer, not judge countries in some sort of beauty pageant?

What's the point of the World Cup when no one seems to want to be there?

Pulisic dominates games for a while - he created the goal and Weah, for a shocking change given the US lately, put it away deftly. And then for long, long periods of time (the entire second half) all he seems to do is lie on the ground and gesture at the referee. If he wasn't such a poor sport, he might be one of the great ones.

I'm surprised Wales didn't push more for a win. The way I see it, both teams are likely to lose to England and beat Iran. Given that the US plays Iran last, they will know what Wales did to Iran and how many goals they need to make up vs the weaker opponent in match 3. Unless they somehow thing England will take it easy on them or something.

For those being stuck with media that are too incompetent to read all the tie-breaker rules: Wales is currently 2nd in Group B, ahead of 3rd place USA, on "team conduct score" (essentialy lower number of yellow and red cards). Just like the Netherlands are ahead of Ecuador in group A (and Senegal is ahead of Qatar for 3rd place).

If England beats the USA, England will need just a scoreless draw against Wales to win the group, whilst in that scenario if Wales has already beaten Iran, Wales will need just a scoreless draw against England to take second place, regardless of what the USA does to Iran. It probably didn't cross their (Wales') minds during the game, but that's a possible scenario.

I feel like you need to get a draw against England to move on. Berhalter's MLS guys are just not going to juice up that goal differential enough.

It would take a big effort but the talent is there.

I don’t often get pre-match predictions right, but when I do… Moore and Johnson must start the rest of the games. Bizarre decision to try to go small ball and lightweight against a team like the US.

Got to be worrying for the US that they played 48 minutes against a team who didn’t show up at all and couldn’t get out of their own half and managed one shot on goal and ended up being outshot for the game. I’d have been happy with a point before the game and would have bit your hand off for a point at half time.

I agree with Jim about Pulisic, he’s great for a couple plays a game but goes missing far too often to be considered world class and with those dead ball deliveries, might as well just take short corners and free kicks. Aaronson was good when he came on and Adams was outstanding, but when all is said and done I think that is probably two poor teams who will be out to the first decent team they play in the next round if they get through.